Non-stabilized compressed earth blocks

Submitted by jgarcias.cr on Fri, 21/07/2017 - 16:41

Hello dear Geoffrey
Before I began to make stabilized ICEBs, I wanted to check if the soil-sand mix was good for compression and had the right proportions of each component. So I pressed a few samples that appeared to be fine.

My question is, do they need to be somehow cured or treated in any special way to become useful for interior walls or other not heavy load applications?
Cheers,
   Joaquin.

Submitted by geoffrey on Wed, 20/06/2018 - 15:16

Permalink

Joaquin. 

Let me refer you to GATE/Craterre's 2 excellent publications:

 

COMPRESSED EARTH. BLOCKS: MANUAL OF PRODUCTION by Vincent

Rigassi, CRATerre-EAG. Volume I. Manual of production

 

https://www.researchgate.net/file.PostFileLoader.html?id=5687a6447eddd3a22

08b45 75&assetKey=AS%3A313394584850433%401451730499973

 

COMPRESSED EARTH BLOCKS: MANUAL OF DESIGN AND.

CONSTRUCTION by Hubert Guillaud, Thierry Joffroy,. Pascal Odul, CRATerre-

EAG. Volume II.

 
http://www.rivendellvillage.org/Compressed_Earth_Block_Design_and_Construction.pdf

Your basic methodology is good: design your mix without a stabilizer first. Then stabilize if needed.

 

And yes, not all blocks need to be stabilized.  Adobe is unstabilized and holds up a large load. 

The thickness of the wall must be adjusted.  Lower strength blocks mean a thicker wall is needed for the same load.  You can test your block strength with a compression tester - the CVBT makes and sells them.

It is nice to render a nonstabilzed wall.  Many renders are possible.

 

Here are a couple links:

 

http://www.solucionespracticas.org.pe/Descargar/619/5318

 

http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1382&context=hp_theses

 

Thanks for the question, I hope this is helpful. 

Please post some photos of your construction.

 

We're working on upgrading our site.  We have to wait for some bugs to be worked out of the software.

 

Respectfully yours,

 

Geoffrey Wheeler  

CVBT, Udon Thani, THAILAND